Just a thought: Anyone with a degree and unpaid student loans should have their degrees rescinded. After all, if you refuse to make car or mortgage payments, you can lose your car or house, which is fair: unpaid debts are theft, and yeh, I’d say the same for debts unpaid after bankruptcy. Need to bring back indentured servitude to repay the debt.
Oh, and servants indentured for unpaid debts should probably be restricted to bread and water, and burlao clothing and bare feet for “off-duty” wear (assuming “on duty” wear suitable for assigned duties). Dog houses should be sufficient to keep ’em warm and dry.
The lesson? Do not assume debt you are unwilling or unable to repay. Living beyond one’s means is a good way to place onself on the horns of a dilemma: to be or not to be a thief.
Ah, but there’s that pesky thirteenth amendment. Unless we define debt as a crime.
Actually I think it might be easier to have taking or teaching a “studies” degree a crime.
Perri, I was not considering making indentured servitude (to repay debts assumed and not repaid) a crime, either at the state or ESPECIALLY federal level. No, it should be a civil, contractual construct: want to borrow? You WILL pay it back, one way or another.
Indentured servitude has gotten a bad rap largely because of governmental abuses (think, for example, of British virtual enslavement of Irish folks and Australian “settlers,” etc.). Of course, enforcement of contracts (and “law-jaw” weaseling on contracts) allows for abuse as well, but Good Sharkey! The abuse of lenders via outright theft has reached epic proportions and needs remedy! I have no idea what can be done with current thieves (abusers of bankruptcy—which is nearly all who claim such, IMO—student loan defaulters, etc.), but maybe someone smarter than I am can come up with a means to teach ’em a lesson they won’t forget. It may involve brick bats and goons from Mafia sources, but when needs must. . .
*sigh*